The young and dynamic Municipal Councillor Gaël Nofri (Independent Elected Officials group) persists and signs: after parting ways with the FN and creating the first (in number) opposition group, he is now attacking another local authority, the General Council, soon to be the Departmental Council, whose election will be held on March 22 and 29.
In a restaurant in the heart of the 5th district, more than a hundred participants*, who gathered to partake in the traditional New Year wishes, learned this from the man himself.
In his speech, Gaël Nofri criticized the Socialist Government for its judicial laxity and its failure in the areas of employment and the economy.
But more generally, he denounced 40 years of management that have brought the country to the brink of disaster, notably on the immigration front, citing Schengen, family reunification, and dual nationality…
Then, on a more local register, he condemned the City and Metropolitan policy, highlighting both the significant share of the debt (1.5 billion for City + Metropolis) and the tax increase for 2015: “12.5 million more in taxes during a crisis is dangerous and unreasonable.” Another target of these attacks: the Mayor’s insistence on pursuing “costly and unwise” projects.
The list is the usual: the buried tramway, the Grand Stadium’s financial setup, the South Station…
After emphasizing his wish to be a pragmatic opposition official “knowing to say yes when it’s good and no when it isn’t,” Gaël Nofri explained how difficult it is to be an independent official in the face of Christian Estrosi, who tolerates no opposition and relies on “a compliant majority.”
This is indeed what justifies his candidacy “to be useful and serve the voters in an approach of independence serving only the people of Nice.”
“Facing the Left, my candidacy is the only truly right-wing one. The only one free to say what needs to be said. The Mayor’s candidate is at the Center. A district deputy for 7 years, she has never spoken up about neighborhood issues: insecurity, increasing poverty, parking, cleanliness… In 7 years, she has found nothing to object to because she is merely the conveyor belt of municipal policy. If elected tomorrow, she will be just as submissive to those who got her elected.”
Not forgetting to aim at the Front National candidate: “the one who will be the label-bearer of the Front National, a temp job that never lasts more than 6 months in Nice. He will carry within him the party’s flaws on Nice: parachuting, submission to Paris, lack of knowledge of the issues, and the foolish and nasty opposition that led its representatives on the Municipal Council to refuse to vote for bulletproof vests for the Police, to refuse housing for Army reinforcements who came to protect public places, to refuse to secure the tramway with video surveillance…”
In response, Gaël Nofri presents himself as a pragmatic candidate, rooted in reality and proximity. It’s on the importance of independence in politics that the Municipal Councillor seems to have focused his speech: “Being a General Councillor means being the spokesperson for your district, which implies speaking truthfully, not having to give in to party orders or to the will of a single man, even if he is the Mayor of Nice.”
This intention is what his list seeks to illustrate with Olga Albin as his running mate. He has entrusted a local businesswoman, known for her straightforwardness and her uncompromising defense of small businesses in the city center. As deputies, the youngest on the Municipal Council, residing in the district, Célia Georges, and socio-professional Olivier Bertrant Mizrahi were chosen.
Another proof of this priority given to proximity and neighborhood issues, the main program points:
- Fighting against the increase in poverty and its corollary, insecurity, which spreads from the south to the north of the district, notably due to the housing policy desired by Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, which favors ghettoization and communitarianism.
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Defending an ambitious parking project after abandoning the idea of a large parking lot at the South Station, with few spaces planned at Ray, the disappearance of spaces planned at Colonel Jean Pierre Square, and unfulfilled promises on Jeanne d’Arc. “Because parking lots are necessary to maintain commercial activity in the city center, we need a Marshall Plan for parking otherwise the shops will disappear as consumers turn towards large shopping centers being built in the West of the Metropolis, Nice One, Cap 3000, or even the Polygons of Cagnes sur Mer.”
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Proposing a counter-project for Ray because the project advanced by the Municipality amounts to handing over the last strategic space of our city to a private developer and real estate speculation. Yes, we need green spaces, yes, we need local infrastructures, but we also need a 1,500-space parking lot and an economic engine for the district.
To conclude, the candidate said: “In this election, I see one opponent and two extras. The opponent is the Left and its lax ideology that has brought our country to where it is today. The extras are the Mayor’s candidate who, if elected, will be forced to say yes to everything, and the FN’s label-bearer who will oppose everything because that is Paris’s instruction. That’s why I am running, that’s why I believe that faced with the left, we need a good right, an independent right serving the people of Nice.”
